ABOUT | ME – LESSONS IN MEDIOCRITY

A Biddeford Boy Having Fun

I am the editor and founder of the Biddeford Gazette, a non-profit digital news organization that exclusively covers the city of Biddeford — a.k.a. my hometown — the place where I raised my two kids and can almost see the end of a mortgage. I grew up here. My father grew up here, and his father — a Biddeford High School English teacher — grew up here.

I am deeply connected to — and passionate about — the city of Biddeford.

I got married in St. Mary’s Church, where I received my First Communion so many years earlier. The wedding reception was held above the Wonderbar. I bought a home on Lamothe Avenue and raised my children here. For more than 30 years, I have been embedded like a tick in this community.

I ran Alan Casavant’s first mayoral campaign in 2011, and I played a significant role in the closure of the controversial MERC trash incinerator. My wife was elected to two terms as an at-large city councilor and served two consecutive terms on the Biddeford School Committee after being appointed to the city’s Policy Committee.

I have been watching and covering Biddeford news on and off for more than 30 years, including my work as a reporter and editor for the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier (1997-2006); as a freelance reporter for Saco Bay News (2023-2024) and as an independent blogger (2007-2024) right up until launching the Biddeford Gazette in Nov. 2024.

I am a mental health consumer and an outspoken advocate for those who also struggle with a mental illness. Before my career in journalism, I bounced around the country as an industrial tool salesman and as a pre-novitiate candidate with the Sacred Heart Fathers & Brothers.

I love well-crafted beer, the movie Jaws, camping, traditional jazz music and spending time with my wife and our black lab, Sasha. I hate baked beans, Kevin Costner and every song ever performed by Journey. If you want to dig deeper, keep reading . . .

THE EARLY YEARS (Crossing the Saco River)